Always a bridesmaid, never a bride is a term often used to describe the person who nearly wins the race, but never quite gets across the finish line. When it comes to World Cup competition, the Netherlands National Football Team knows a lot about being a bridesmaid.

In 1974, Holland Football Team came as close to the cup as you can get without winning. They fell to their host country’s team, Germany, in a 2-1 match and left with that “wait ‘til next time” attitude you’d expect of competitive players. The match was marred by a rather strange penalty call on Holland squad member, Johan Neeskens. In the first minute of the final, he was sent to the penalty area by the referee, Jack Taylor, because up until that point, no German player had touched the ball, but it had been passed by Dutch players 15 times.

Only four years later, in 1978, they fell once more to their host country, this time Argentina. During that tournament, in a phase-two match against Italy, Ernie Brandts of Holland earned the distinction of being the only player to score a goal and to own a goal in the same match, and the team did win to advance to the finals. Still, while it took extra time for the Argentine team to beat them, in the end a 3-1 score created a strange sense of déjà vu for the squad from the Netherlands.

Sadly, since those two near wins in the 1970s, the nearest Team Holland has come to playing in a World Cup Final was in 1998 when they lost a semi-final match to Brazil in a shoot-out.

The Dutch team is going to walk the FIFA World Cup 2010 surface with third ranking. Much is expected from them as they hold mastery in precision passing. Let’s have a look at what they have for us in this event: Read more..